■ ECONOMY
Japanese rates unchanged
The Bank of Japan decided yesterday to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent, a move that had been widely expected in the market. The central bank's decision at the end of a two-day meeting was unanimous, it said in a statement. The bank also maintained its upbeat assessment of the economy in a monthly report, saying that production, exports and consumer spending are improving, keeping the economy on track for moderate expansion. The bank last changed the benchmark interest rate in February, doubling it from 0.25 percent.
■ ELECTRONICS
Samsung opens US fab
South Korea's Samsung Electronics said yesterday it has opened a giant plant at Austin, Texas, to supply US customers with the most advanced memory chips used for various mobile devices. The plant, as large as nine football fields, will produce 12-inch wafers whose yields are 2.4 times greater than less advanced eight-inch wafers. The US$3.5 billion facility will produce 60,000 such wafers every month. The new plant will manufacture NAND flash memory chips, which are widely used in a host of products including MP3 players, mobile phones and digital cameras.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Nanjing to revive the Healey
China's Nanjing Auto (南京汽車) said yesterday it would revive the Austin Healey and Healey cars after decades off the road, as part of the deal that saw it buy part of Britain's defunct MG Rover Group. Nanjing Auto signed agreements on Tuesday with Healey Automobile Consultants, which had been responsible for the brands, to formally take control of them, Nanjing MG Automotive Company spokesman Lu Qiang said. Nanjing Auto, China's oldest car maker, bought the rights to develop the historic cars from the bankrupt MG Rover Group, once makers of the iconic Mini and Jaguar, in July 2005. The first Chinese made MGs came off the assembly line in March.
■ INTERNET
Browser copies hit a million
Apple Inc said on Thursday that users have downloaded more than 1 million copies of the Windows version of its Safari Internet browser in the first 48 hours it was available. The computer and consumer electronics company launched the Web browser on Monday, setting off another layer of competition with its archrival, Microsoft Corp. Safari had about 5 percent of the market share for Internet browsers with more than 18 million users when it was previously available only for Macintosh computers, according to Apple. Several researchers wasted no time in pointing out security vulnerabilities they found in the Windows version of Safari, and Apple issued an update to the browser on Thursday to fix those bugs.
■ HEALTHCARE
Firm says paste now safe
A Chinese firm accused of manufacturing tainted toothpaste said it has stopped using a chemical found in antifreeze, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday amid a row about the safety of Chinese products. Shanghai White Cat Shareholding Co Ltd, maker of "MAXAM" toothpaste, said in a statement the company stopped using diethylene glycol in all products on May 21. The statement said the chemical, a thickening agent used in antifreeze, was commonly used in toothpaste.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
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